DIAMONDS are a girl's best friend - not to mention, shiny pals of showbiz stars such as actresses Wong Li Lin and Andrea De Cruz who attended the launch of an Olympics-inspired jewellery display at Ngee Ann City earlier this week.

Besides the stars who came out for the evening, the event was even more glittering as the display was held inside a rectangular structure shaped like the Beijing Olympics' distinctive National Aquatics Centre. The water-sports venue made headlines for its creative bubble surface exterior earlier this year.

Home-grown jeweller Soo Kee shelled out $500,000 for the 9m-tall, 650 sq m pavilion, named the Diamond Pave - literally meaning a closely set cluster of diamonds - at the mall's Civic Plaza along Orchard Road.

Read Frankie Chee's full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.